without sunshine will have no brilliancy of colour, and in like manner children deprived of pure air and of the sun's rays, will grow up sickly and faded. I know that you do often send the children out when they are old enough to take care of themselves, or when you have elder children to trust them with; but then it is only to "play about the streets;" to sit on doorsteps, perhaps, or follow their games by the gutter, or near the open grating of a sewer. This is not breathing fresh air—the air of a narrow, thickly-peopled street never can be pure. Country children have greatly the advantage of town children in this respect, that they have at least the free air of heaven to breathe, and the fields smelling sweet with daisies and cowslips to play in. To those brought up in towns the parks are the best substitute; why should not the children be sent to play in them? It may be that you are afraid of letting them go out of your sight, and do not like their crossing the streets, and are yourself too busy to take charge of them. own it is a difficulty, but in a matter of so much consequence to their health, it is your duty to make an effort. It would be better to spare a little time from your work than to let your children become sickly and puny.

I

FOOD.

Another point of equal importance is the food of infants. It is too much the habit,

directly a child is weaned, to let it share with others of the family in their meals. Sometimes mothers do not even wait for the appearance of teeth before they thrust bits of potatoe or bread into the baby's mouth, with the chance of choking it, and the certainty of making it ill, if the food does pass safely down the throat. I have often found a poor baby pale and suffering, the mother not knowing what was the matter. She had given it a powder, of course, but it did not seem to be any better. I have asked what she fed the baby on, and received the usual answer: 66 Well, he has a bit of whatever we eat." Now, if your poor baby gets bits of meat or potatoe, cheese, bacon, or red herring, is it any wonder that it cannot thrive? The little stomach is not made to digest such things; they cannot be taken up by the system, and so they produce convulsions, wind on the stomach, diarrhoea, obstructions, and such like disorders. A child fed in this way is always uncomfortable and fretful, starts and screams in its sleep, and draws up its legs in pain. It is liable, moreover, to any sudden attack of illness which may end its days. You may say that you can't afford, or you can't take the trouble, to provide separate food for your infants, but this excuse cannot satisfy your conscience, nor can it excuse you in the sight of God. You are risking by such treatment the life of your little ones-you are exposing them to certain pain and suffering -you are neglecting a mother's duty; and for all these things God will bring you into judg

ment. Not a sparrow falleth to the ground without Him, and they are of more value than many sparrows. It only requires a little thought and pains on your part to procure good and wholesome food for your baby. Of course the right food for a baby till it is nine months or a year old is that supplied by nature. It is a mother's duty to suckle her child, and to most mothers it is so entirely a work of love, that they will with difficulty be persuaded to give it up, even when their health forbids it. Nothing can fully supply the place of this food to the infant, for it contains the materials most required at its tender age, and in a form which can be readily taken up by its system. Some mothers are tempted by the desire of gain to leave their own children to the mercy of strangers, and go out as wet-nurses to the children of the rich. A woman must either have very little natural affection for her own, or be very much distressed in circumstances, before she can do this. The effect is generally that her own little one pines and dies, or else is puny and wasted, for want not only of its proper food, but of the warmth and comfort of nestling in its mother's breast. One of the first physicians of the day for children's disorders has said, "Providence may have wisely determined that the infant shall be dependent on its mother for support, in order that her instinctive feelings may lay the firm foundation of that love which causes her to cling to her little one with a fondness which surpasses all other affec

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tion, and which gives her the patience, the gentleness, the untiring energy, that make her the child's best guardian, friend, and teacher during its early years." "The infant whose mother refuses to perform towards it a mother's part, or who, by accident, disease, or death, is deprived of the food that nature destined for it, too often languishes and dies. Such children you may often see, with no fat to give plumpness to their limbs-no red particles in their blood to give a healthy hue to their skintheir face wearing in infancy the lineaments of age-their voice a constant wail-their whole aspect an embodiment of woe. But give to

such children the food that nature destined for them, and if the remedy do not come all too late to save them, the mournful cry will cease, the face will assume a look of content, by degrees the features of infancy will disclose themselves, the limbs will grow round, the skin pure red and white; and when at length we hear the merry laugh of babyhood, it seems almost as if the little sufferer of some weeks before must have been a changeling, and this the real child brought back from fairyland."

A singular instance, supplied last year, proves the sad effects to children of the want of a mother's care and nourishment. The ribbon trade of Coventry, as is well known, was so dull last winter that hundreds and thousands of factory workers were thrown out of employment. Many of these were females, and they, not being able to find work at the factories, were obliged

to remain at home and take charge of the children, who in busy times were put out to nurse. The result was, that in spite of all the misery and starvation of that period, the deaths among infants were far less in number than they had been in the preceding years. In 1857 the deaths had been a hundred-in 1858, they had been ninety-eight-in 1859 they had been one hundred and thirty-two; while in the severe and trying winter of 1860 they fell to sixtyseven. What a striking instance of the value of maternal care! These facts speak for themselves; who after reading them will deny that it is a mother's sacred duty to nourish her children? the first and most sacred duty of a mother, the one which the Creator Himself has ordained, and which cannot be neglected without bringing sorrow and punishment? If, however, an infant is deprived of its mother by death, or if the mother is unable on account of ill-health, or consumptive tendency, to suckle her child, it is, of course, best to imitate as nearly as possible. the mother's milk, in the food you substitute. The milk of other animals differs in many respects from human milk; that of asses comes nearest to it, but it is expensive, and can only be afforded by the rich. The next best substitute is cow's milk mixed with a certain quantity of water, according to the age of the infant. For the first five months there should be as much water as milk, but at the end of that time, the water may be reduced to one-third, and then after a while pure milk given. A very